Jamaica, southern U.S. brace for Sandy

MUST WATCH

Story highlights

Center of the storm hits near Kingston; maximum sustained winds are 80 mph

Florida and Massachusetts officials keeping an eye on the storm's progress

A dark day in Jamaica turned into a dark night as most of the island was without power and one person was killed as Hurricane Sandy passed through.

CNN affiliate TV J reported a man was killed when he was hit by a boulder sent tumbling downhill by the storm's rain.

TV J said 70% of the island was without power.

More than 1,000 people went to shelters, the Office of Disaster Preparedness said.

A curfew was in effect until Thursday morning, according to the Jamaican Office of Information.

Hurricane Sandy rolled overJamaica on Wednesday, bringing 80-mph wind and torrents of rain to the island, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm made landfall near Kingston about 3 p.m. ET, the center said. The storm was expected to bring rainfall amounts between 6 and 12 inches.

As of 8 p.m., the eye of the storm was between Jamaica and Cuba. Sandy was headed north at 14 mph (22 kph) and its strongest sustained winds had increased in speed to 85 mph (135 kph).

The forecast map shows Sandy reaching eastern Cuba by early Thursday before heading to the Bahamas. Tropical storm and hurricane warnings are up across the region.

That includes Florida's east coast, where a tropical storm warning is in effect from Ocean Reef to Sebastian Inlet.

The warning means tropical storm conditions are expected within the area in the next 24 to 36 hours, the hurricane center said.

In Massachusetts, the state's emergency management agency began issuing situational awareness news releases as some computer models show that Sandy could "potentially transition over the weekend into a powerful nor'easter."

The five-day forecast from the National Hurricane Center predicts the center of the storm will travel along the east coast of the United States over the weekend.